This week is another week without the dreaded snow. I am thankful! After last year any day without snow is a good day. We seem to be having grey weather right now like Victoria has every time I have gone there to see my mother. If I don't see the sun I find myself getting depressed. It's like a grey cloud is descending and surrounding you. I hate it! The most beautiful thing we have to be thankful for is the many days of bright sunlight that is the Saskatchewan Prairies. I haven't been a world traveller, but just enough to know this is the best place in the world to live. That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.
On the home front, my fall tillage is done. My two old Morris cultivators got the job done but not without the usual trip failures. Believe it or not I still had some straps from years ago when I had a Morris cultivator. They got put on the cultivators and were fit to go again. Now, I need a couple of shanks. I used to have some spare shanks that I got from Pete Geres in Neilburg, but looking through my treasures, my eyes don't see them so they have either been used up or I can't find them. This will put me on the road to the wreckers before spring. I could buy new ones but that wouldn't be as much fun. I really miss going to Earl Jones place. A little cheaper parts, a good visit, free coffee and a little bantering back and forth. You don't get that when buying new parts. I do get coffee and a visit at Agland and Moody's.
I am doing something that I haven't done for years. I am soil testing! I have my own probe so Chris, the new guy, and I went down to my fields in the hills. I drove and he was the probe man. As we drove along, I would say this is a good spot and I would stop the truck and he would get out and get a sample. I got the little soil sample bags from Lashburn Co-op and they will send the samples away. They have free coffee there, too! I have not been enthused about soil sampling in recent years. I have a stack of soil samples that I have taken over the years that I have offered to trade for a bottle of whiskey. I have had no takers. I am taking samples again but I don't have high hopes of learning much. In recent years the fertilizer price was such that you only put on what you could afford. You don't need a soil test for that! If you are an oil maggot then put on the 80 to 100 pounds. You will get a good crop. For the average guy, if you play with the big boys, put your hand on your butt because the wreck is coming.
I am really looking forward to spring. I finished combining, the fall tillage is done, the land is ready to seed. I have a hired man in place. This year we will hopefully get our seed cleaned before we are buried in snow. If the weather holds we will get the air seeder up to the shop. It has some hoses out, needs shovels and other little stuff. If winter comes and it doesn't get done, next spring will be fine.
Last year was just awful. The yard was full of snow in October. I didn't have my blade on the tractor. We shovelled to get the blade out so we could hook on. Then I found the snow was so hard, I couldn't push it anyway. My semi truck was buried up to the hood in snow. I finally got a path dug out to it and managed to tow it out backwards on a little trail out of my yard. I had no way to get seed into my seed storage bin. Six-foot snow drifts were in the way. When the weather got better and I managed to get the yard plowed, then the yard got soft and you wouldn't dare take a loaded truck in there. Also there was a soft spot on the turn out at my elevator where I clean seed. I was just beat no matter which way I turned. Da Devil had me and had me good!
I have had a problem with getting hired help. We were a member of the IAEA where we could get trainees to help with farming. We have had some excellent young men, but also some not so good. Then this CAPE outfit bought out IAEA. The last trainee was terrible, Big strips missed where he never turned on the switch and left before he had the crop seeded. Hardly anyone had any trainees last year. I left the program. I started filling out paperwork last December to get a temporary foreign worker. There are forms and more forms - a stack of paperwork an inch thick. Three months delay before they looked at the application. Finally, I got a favourable LMO. Then the staff in the foreign embassy went on strike so that means the man can't get a work visa. This man has missed seeding, harvesting only arriving after we were all done, but he is here for the next two years at least. We are good to go for next year, I guess.
Congratulations to Rob Saunders on being elected mayor of Lloydminster. With the growth in the city there will be big demands for services. Not to be forgotten is runner up Cheryl Ross who was, understandably disappointed with the results. Congratulations and thank you for letting your name stand for mayor. Win or lose the two candidates provide a valuable service for our democracy. Without people stepping forward and allowing their names to stand we would not have democracy working. Congratulations to both.
Joke of the week: A blonde decided she wanted to go fishing so she borrowed a boat and went down to the lake. There was a $25 fee for launching a boat there. No way she was going to pay that! She dragged the boat out in a farmer's wheat stubble field and sat in the boat, threw out her hook and started fishing. Two blondes drove by on the road and the one blonde says to the other, "Look at that! She will never catch any fish out there! People will see that and think all blondes are stupid!" The other blonde says, "That's right. She really makes me mad doing that. If I could swim, I'd go right out there and smack her!" As my Uncle Harold used to say, " Oooooh boy."
